Note from our PTA President

2019-2020 PTA President, Kristen Gardner

Welcome to the 2019-2020 school year at Fairfield Elementary Magnet School! On behalf of our Fairfield PTA, I’d like to extend a warm welcome to all our new and returning Bulldog families – we are so excited to see everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful, restful summer.

My husband and I have two children; Emily is 8 and starting third grade, and Will is almost 7 and starting first grade. We have spent three wonderful years at Fairfield, and we are always thrilled to see how much our children have grown during their time at Fairfield. We came to Fairfield because it is a school of exemplary academic achievement, and we saw how the Fairfield family – students, teachers, administration, staff, PTA – work together tirelessly to provide the very best learning environment possible for our children. Because of these efforts, there are too many awards for the school and teachers and students to list here; we are so proud to be part of such a respected academic community. But it is the relationships and personal growth of our children (all due to the amazing faculty, staff, and friends that we’ve encountered along the way) that have been the most special part of our time at Fairfield.

Our Fairfield PTA has lots of new and exciting things planned for this year that have been in the works for many months (and sometimes longer!). As many of you have heard, Fairfield is going paperless, so please download our new app from the App Store. This is where you will find the Fairfield calendar, information from your child’s teacher, Tuesday Talk, our school directory, PayForIt, Local Level, and a ton of other information about all things Fairfield. The app will also allow us to send push notifications for reminders, so please make sure you enable that feature. We promise not to overdo it! James Parkerson, your PTA web guru, has worked for many hours to get the app ready for the start of this school year, and he’ll have a table set up at Bulldog Bash to answer questions about the new app.

The app is part of a larger project that we have all been working on behind the scenes (especially James Parkerson) to streamline the flow of information because we know there is so much that gets communicated, particularly at the start of the school year. The primary place to get current, correct information will be our app (see above) and this website at www.fairfieldmagnet.org, which serves to showcase our school as well as to provide information about the school and PTA events. Teachers’ individual websites can be accessed through the app and the website, and both contain links to important education enhancing sites. Additionally, we have an Instagram account (connect at @fairfieldelementarymagnet) and a Twitter account (connect at @magnetfairfield) that we’d love for you to follow. Another very helpful source of information is the Fairfield Elementary Magnet School Facebook page. When you “Like” this page, important announcements will show up in your Facebook feed. A panel of teachers and parents also administer a private Fairfield Parent/Teacher Page (also on Facebook) as a forum for exchanging information in a family friendly forum. It is open to our families only and requires approval to join. Please email me at ptapresident@fairfieldmagnet.org if you would like to be added.

Another major project over the last few months has been the creation of the Fairfield Foundation to assist in fundraising for Fairfield. The Fairfield Foundation is entirely separate from PTA, but we are working together to continue to provide much-need extras for our children, faculty and staff at Fairfield. As you can see from the signs on our fences, our Fairfield Foundation board members – Lauren Reynolds (President), Taylor McDonald (Secretary/Treasurer), Kris Jackson, Brian Middleton, Lindsey Lewis, Shanté Wells, Emily Chafin, Surinder Tank, and Mrs. Graham – have been busy over the summer lining up sponsorships from businesses and individuals with the goal of bringing some outside funding for our various projects. You will all be hearing much more about the Fairfield Foundation in the coming weeks, but if your family or business or employer would like to become a sponsor, please contact Lindsey Lewis or Shanté Wells at fairfieldfoundation@fairfieldmagnet.org. And, for those of you who have been asking if you can write a single check to cover fundraising for the year, this is your chance – individuals and families can become Patrons of the Fairfield Foundation by making a donation of $10 or more. Yes, that is correct! Patrons can donate $10 or $1,000, but since PTA is not planning to sell chocolates, butterbraids, or king cakes this year, we encourage all families to donate to the Fairfield Foundation in lieu of those other fundraisers so that we can continue to put money back into Fairfield in the form of SmartTVs and other much-needed amenities. We are hopeful that this will lessen some of the burden on families while allowing for each family to contribute an amount that is comfortable for that family because regardless of the amount donated, Patrons will have the opportunity to vote on projects for the school later in the year if the donation is received by the Foundation’s deadline. If you’d like to become a Patron, please contact Emily Chafin or Surinder Tank at fairfieldfoundation@fairfieldmagnet.org. You can also learn more about our Fairfield Foundation by looking under the Foundation tab on the Fairfield website: https://fairfieldmagnet.org/home/fairfield-foundation/.

As we always do, I will start this year by asking each of you to join the PTA. A single membership costs $10, and the PTA is instrumental in providing our students, teachers and staff with so many extras that would not be possible without your support. Some of you may be asking what the Fairfield PTA does or why you should join, so I want to take a minute to brag on our Fairfield families and what they accomplished last year. PTA started last school year with the goal of purchasing 4 new SmartTVs for the first grade classrooms. But due to overwhelming parent and grandparent support of the PTA through purchasing memberships, attending Fall Carnival, Spring Fling and Auction, and other events, direct donations, and selling chocolates and king cakes, we were able to purchase TWELVE SmartTVs for Fairfield classrooms and we had an additional SmartTV donated. There are currently only a few classrooms that do not have SmartTVs. We were also able to purchase two water bottle refill stations for our water fountains, and they have been a huge hit with students, parents, faculty, and staff. Our Fairfield family truly is amazing! Thank you to each of you – you all helped us blow past our goals and exceed our greatest expectations.

In closing, I want to invite each of you to get involved as much as you can in our school community, and there are so many ways to do so. PTA has many fun, family-oriented events planned for this school year – Bulldog Bash, parent fun events, mother/son and father/daughter bingo nights, Fall Carnival, Grandparents’ Day, Faculty and Staff Appreciation lunches and breakfasts, DADS Club carpool helpers and recesses, Field Day, restaurant spirit nights, GRANDS club events, Muffins with Mom, Donuts with Dad, and so much more – and there is still time to get involved on a planning committee. If you’d like to get involved, please reach out to the committee chairperson or to me at ptapresident@fairfieldmagnet.org. We would love to have you! And, even if you are not able to commit time to a PTA committee, please volunteer to work a shift or two at one of our events, and of course, come out to as many of our events as you can. Our Fairfield community is amazing, and we appreciate the role that each of you plays in that community, which is one of the many things, along with our wonderful faculty and staff who provide an exceptional learning environment for our children, that makes Fairfield stand out.

PTA MEETING SCHEDULE: All members of the PTA are welcome at both our Board Meetings and General Membership Meetings. Our scheduled meetings are as follows: